In recent years, in order to maintain and improve the global environment, the development of power generation devices that impose as little environmental load as possible has progressed remarkably. One such power generation device is a device that generates power by continually and repeatedly changing the pressure applied to a piezoelectric element.
As one such power generation device that employs a piezoelectric element, a power generation device has been proposed including a piezoelectric block that consists of a plurality of piezoelectric elements, a rotating member, support members each of which is attached to the rotating member in the state of being biased by a spring in the outward direction, and rollers that are freely rotatably supported at the ends of these support members (refer to Patent Document #1, hereinafter termed the “prior art example”). With this power generation device of the prior art example, on the basis of the rotation of the rotating member, the rollers sequentially ride over the piezoelectric block, and the piezoelectric block is pressurized due to the biasing forces generated by the springs. Due to this periodic pressurization, voltages that change periodically are repeatedly and periodically generated by the piezoelectric block.